ARTA’s strong form in the second half of the 2023 Autobacs SUPER GT Series continued on as Nirei Fukuzumi won his second pole of the season for Sunday’s Autopolis GT 450km Race.
That pole position represents a major opportunity for the #16 ARTA Mugen Honda NSX-GT of Fukuzumi, Hiroki Otsu, and crew to gain ground in the GT500 championship with only two races left in the season.
Fukuzumi’s best lap time of 1:31.131 beat the previous GT500 course record at Autopolis by two-tenths of a second.
“To tell the truth, I didn’t expect us to get a time like this,” Fukuzumi said after qualifying. “Today, the condition of the car was good right from the start of qualifying. In Q1, Otsu-san ran on different tyres from the ones I used, but he was still able to put us into Q2 by finishing in sixth position.
“For my run in Q2, the set-up was also good, so I was free from any concerns to concentrate on my driving. And I think that is what brought us this result, so I am grateful to everyone.”
On the other side of the ARTA garage, the #8 ARTA NSX-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Toshiki Oyu) had to be repaired in just a few hours after Oyu spun and crashed into the barriers at turn 16 in practice. Oyu went out and qualified the car but was one of several drivers bumped below the Q2 cut line late, and finished tenth in Q1.
Toyotas locked out the rest of the top five in Q2, led by the #19 WedsSport Advan Toyota GR Supra (Yuji Kunimoto/Sena Sakaguchi), ahead of the #39 Denso Kobelco SARD GR Supra (Yuhi Sekiguchi/Yuichi Nakayama), #14 Eneos X Prime GR Supra (Kazuya Oshima/Kenta Yamashita), and #37 Deloitte TOM’s GR Supra (Ukyo Sasahara/Giuliano Alesi).
The #17 Astemo NSX-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Nobuharu Matsushita) qualified sixth in its first race after being disqualified from the victory at Sportsland Sugo, followed by the #38 ZENT Cerumo GR Supra (Yuji Tachikawa/Hiroaki Ishiura), and the #100 Stanley NSX-GT (Tadasuke Makino/Iori Kimura). Kimura couldn’t get a clean Q2 run in his first GT500 time attack, replacing the injured Naoki Yamamoto.
Below the cut line, championship leaders Katsumasa Chiyo and Mitsunori Takaboshi qualified ninth in the #3 Niterra Motul Nissan Z – which was actually the fastest of the four Nissan Zs that all missed Q2. The top three in the championship all missed out on Q2 with the #36 au TOM’s GR Supra (Sho Tsuboi/Ritomo Miyata) in 12th and the #23 Motul Autech Z (Tsugio Matsuda/Ronnie Quintarelli) in 14th.
GT300 pole position went to the #2 muta Racing Toyota GR86 (Yuui Tsutsumi/Hibiki Taira/Hiroki Katoh). Tsutsumi captured his first career SUPER GT pole position in record-setting fashion, breaking the course record with a lap of 1:42.016. Tsutsumi and Taira are currently fifth in the championship, 15 points back of the lead.
“Up until now, we have been able to show our speed, but today brought me my first pole position, so I want to express my gratitude to the team and to Taira-san,” said Tsutsumi.
“Since I was able to get my first pole position this way in record time, it certainly gives me added motivation for tomorrow’s race. In that race, I will have only one thing in mind—to win.”
GTA-GT300 vehicles monopolised the front of the running order in qualifying. The #61 Subaru BRZ R&D Sport (Takuto Iguchi/Hideki Yamauchi) was second, followed by the #31 apr Lexus LC500h (Koki Saga/Kazuto Kotaka/Yuki Nemoto) and the championship-leading #52 Saitama Toyopet GreenBrave Toyota GR Supra (Hiroki Yoshida/Kohta Kawaai/Seita Nonaka).
Further back among the title contenders, the #18 UPGarage Honda NSX GT3 (Takashi Kobayashi/Syun Koide) qualified ninth in class, the #7 Studie BMW M4 GT3 (Seiji Ara/Bruno Spengler) was 11th, and the #56 Realize/Nissan Mechanic Challenge GT-R GT3 (João Paulo de Oliveira/Teppei Natori) was 17th.
Images © GTA
